A Venezuelan passenger plane slammed into the sheer face of an Andean mountainside shortly after takeoff from this tourist city and all 46 people on board were killed, officials confirmed tonight.
Rescuers rappelled from helicopters to search for remains in the shattered wreckage lodged 13,000 feet above sea level. Only the tail of the Santa Barbara airline plane could be seen from the air.
"This plane was found completely wrecked, smashed against the face of one of the mountains," civil defense chief Antonio Rivero said. "Unfortunately everyone aboard died."
The twin-engine plane crashed 6 miles from the mountain tourist city of Merida after taking off for the capital Caracas on Thursday before dusk in a notoriously difficult region to navigate.
Authorities said they did not know what caused the plane to crash among mountain peaks that are often covered in snow and known for its condors and adventure hiking trails.
In Thursday's crash, the weather was good, the roughly 20-year-old plane had a solid maintenance record and no history of technical problems. The pilot was experienced and had specialized training for flying through the Andes.
There was no evidence the pilot made distress calls before crashing with 43 passengers and a crew of three aboard.
A well-known Venezuelan political analyst, a local mayor, relatives of a senior government official and an American woman working at the Venezuelan arm of financial services company Stanford Financial Group died in the crash, authorities said.
The passenger list also included an 11-year-old boy.
Family members who had waited for the passengers to arrive in Caracas received help from psychologists to deal with anxiety. They were set to fly near to the crash site.
Pilots need special training to fly from Merida's airport because the city is so tightly hemmed in by mountains that planes must make steep ascents at takeoff.
Visibility at dusk becomes so difficult planes are only allowed to take off during daylight. The plane involved in Thursday's incident was the day's last flight out.
Santa Barbara is a small airline that covers domestic routes and has seven Merida flights a day. The plane was an ATR 42-300, a turboprop built by French-Italian company ATR.
The ATR 42 series has been involved in at least 17 accidents since first flying in 1984, according to the Aviation Safety Network, a private air safety monitoring agency.